Medilink Training 2nd Dermatopathology Update

Speakers

Dr. Martin Mihm

Dr. Mihm graduated "Summa cum laude" from Duquesne University in 1955. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 1961. He specialized in Internal Medicine, Dermatology, Pathology, and Dermatopathology.

He started residency in dermatology at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in 1964 and after completing pathology residency joined the staff in 1973. In 1976, he founded one of the first five residency training programs in Dermatopathology in the United States. He became a professor at Harvard Medical School in 1980. He joined the faculty of Albany Medical Center in 1993 to establish a dermatology and dermatopathology training program. In 1996 he returned to MGH to continue work in melanoma and to establish a vascular malformation clinic.

He is currently clinical professor of dermatology and pathology at Harvard Medical School and senior dermatopathologist at the MGH. Dr. Mihm holds now five adjunct professorships at different schools in the United States. He is the co-director of the WHO melanoma pathology program. He also was a co-founder of the Rare Tumor Institute of the WHO in Milan, Italy and acted as external coordinator for five years. He was recently named co-director of the EORTC melanoma pathology program. He has written over four hundred articles and authored and co-authored twelve books.

His research interested have principally been related to malignant melanoma, the study of delayed hypersensitivity reaction in animals and humans with Dr. Harold Dvorak, and more recently has begun to investigate the pathogenesis of vascular anomalies. He began his melanoma studies with Dr. Wallace Clark in 1965 and coauthored the first publication of the classification of malignant melanoma into subtypes. He also contributed in establishing the importance of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes as prognostic factor in primary and metastatic melanoma. For the last twelve years, he has been working with Dr. Glenn Dranoff and Dr. Steven Hodi in the study of vaccine reactions to autologous melanoma cells. This collaboration also includes investigation into various factors affecting the host reaction and the relationship to survival. The research with Dr. Harold Dvorak led to the discovery of the role of basophils in human hypersensitivity reactions, as well a definitive description of delayed hypersensitivity in man led to the first description of the role of the vasculature in human allograft rejection. In the last eight years, he has also begun to study vascular anomalies in children and in adults. With Dr. Paula North the discovery of a specific phenotype in infantile hemangiomas has led to extensive studies on pathogenesis of these lesions.

Dr Mihm is an international consultant for pigmented lesions, lymphoma, and cutaneous inflammatory diseases. He is the co-director of the Pigmented Lesion Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He is also co-chairman of the Melanoma Pathology Program of the World Health Organization and co-director of the new Rare Tumor Institute founded this year by the World Health Organization. Dr. Mihm's expertise covers problematic pigmented lesions, problematic lesions of lymphoma, and problems relating to inflammatory diseases of the skin. He has co-authored numerous articles and several books concerning skin pathology.

Artur Zembowicz, MD, PhD

Dr. Zembowicz is a founder and medical director of www.DermatopathologyConsultations.com, a world-wide dermatopathology, ophthalmic pathology and head and neck pathology consultation practice.

He obtained his M.D. and Ph.D degrees from Copernicus Academy of Medicince in Cracow, Poland. His research training included fellowship at The William Harvey Research Institute in London under direction of Sir John R. Vane, FRS, a Nobel price winner in 1982, and Vascular Biology Research Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston directed by Kenneth K. Wu, M.D. His basic science research contributions were in areas of vascular biology and inflammation, including regulation of endothelial gene expression, thrombosis and atherosclerosis.

Dr. Zembowicz trained in anatomic pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA and in dermatopathology at Harvard Combined Dermatopathology Fellowship (Brighman and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA). He served as a member of dermatopathology, head and neck and ophthalmic pathology services at Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He worked at Dr. Martin C. Mihm's consulation practice. Dr. Zembowicz served as a Director of Harvard Dermatopathology CME Course. He is currently Associate Professor of Pathology at Tufts University Medical School and Staff Dermatopathologists at Lahey Clinic, Burlington, MA.